After Thursday morning's shoot-around practice, a New York reporter asked Kevin Durant if he had heard Charles Barkley's comments concerning the Thunder.

“I don't listen to that guy,” Durant said curtly. “What did he say?”

It was explained Barkley recently had reiterated OKC would never be a title contender with a bunch of jump shooters.

“He said that last year,” Durant said. “He said we wouldn't make it to the Finals with a bunch of jump shooters. We're shooting 48 percent as a team. We don't shoot all 3s, we don't shoot all jumpers. We get to the paint. We shoot mid-range shots. We can do it all, so of course he's going to say that. He's been saying that for years.

“We respect sometimes what he says. He's a funny guy, but we don't listen to him.”

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES

Durant officially has 12 technical fouls this season after the league rescinded his technical from Tuesday night's game against the Lakers applied by official Joey Crawford even though it was during a timeout and Durant wasn't in the game.

A one-game suspension commences with No. 16 and with every other technical thereafter.

LIFE WITHOUT HARDEN

Thunder players also were peppered with question about departed sixth man James Harden.

Asked if the season would be determined solely by trading away Harden, Durant said: “Nope, I don't think so. We're still a good team. We're (45-16). If that was the case, we wouldn't have this good a record. We wouldn't be fighting for a No. 1 seed. With James last year, we had the same record, the same No. 2 seed.”

GO FISH

Durant also has grown weary of questions about recently acquired 38-year-old Derek Fisher and what he means to the OKC locker room.